Sir Robert Peel

In Britain, modern politics starts with Peel. When William IV sacked Lord Melbourne and sent for Sir Robert, this was the last time a monarch dismissed his ministers of his own accord. When Peel replaced Melbourne again, in 1841, this was the first time a government was overturned, not by the King, not by a vote of Parliament, but by a vote of the British electorate. Peel's manifesto to his electors in Tamworth was the first national manifesto in British history. — Ferdinand Mount (2007)